Cuisine de la Mediterranee

This is Geoff with my first post...

I'm taking the opportunity of this year to develop some creative talents and hope to experiment with cooking and drawing. Knowing this, our great friend Ashley Serafin gave us a wonderful cookbook before we left called "Raw Food Made Easy"- perfect for all of the fresh veggies here. It's taken us this long to feel organized enough to try out recipes, but this weekend Darcie and I put together a menu using Ashley's book and a French cookbook called "Cuisine of the Sun". Armed with a shopping list, Ceci and I set out for the market this morning. She was a great helper and picked out 6 beautiful peppers, a sweet cantaloupe, great apples, pears, pickles, and an eggplant, among other things. After an hour and a half (including a ride on the carousel), our bags were full and we had all we needed. Except, it should be noted, for cooking spinach. When I bought spinach, the farmer said - "This is for salad, you know, not cooking. It's too fresh to waste on cooking - and too expensive. Buy it frozen." He was right - it was 10 euro (~$14 a kilo)! Luckily 4 salad servings was less than a dollar.

We got home and started unloading and I was struck by the colors and smells of this amazingly fresh food and I had to try to capture it in a photo. This doesn't do it justice, but it's a start.

All this for 45 euro, plus 15 euro for some fresh spices

Here's Ceci trying to figure out what she thinks of the sardines

The menu tonight was from the Cuisine of the Sun and included Sardines Grillees (grilled fresh sardines with parsley and garlic), Riz au Safran (saffron rice with nutmeg) and Haricots au Beurre (green beans with butter). The girls all rotate days cooking with us and today was Adele's day (she really likes to cook and is becoming quite good). She was totally grossed out by the "yucky, bloody eyes" on the sardines and refused to touch them. I did convince her to at least receive them in a strainer after I cleaned them, which she did, before unceremoniously dumping them onto a paper towel to dry them.

I should mention that "cleaning" them here means washing them, not scaling them, removing the head and innards, etc., since you eat them whole. The 'whole-ness' of the fish grossed all of the females in the house out throughout the process (from buying to eating them). We grilled them, drizzled them in olive oil and fresh lemon juice, then garnished them with fresh parsley and garlic.

Here's how it all came out.

Adele announce that, even though she had spent 30 minutes helping prepare them, "even the thought of eating the sardines give me goosebumps!!" Darcie told her that was too bad since we had chocolate pudding for dessert, after which Adele decided to try "just a small bite". She did and, with a big smile said, "Mmmm, I like it. It tastes like Salmon with potato chips [the bones]!" The girls all ate a complete sardine and Darcie awarded them each an "Adventurous Eater" certificate. It was a good day.

Geoff